Monday, October 14, 2013

The 541 Syndicate Part I

When Adán Díaz Herrera started first grade in the small rural school in the
mountains straddling Northern California and Southern Oregon, he was the only
Mexican in his class. In fact, not even his teacher spoke Spanish, along with
the entire crowded class of 31 students.

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His classmates, mostly children of
loggers, many whose parents had come from Oklahoma or Arkansas during the Dust
Bowl, derided him as a "wetback", even though he was a 3rd generation
American. The children of local hippies, who flocked to the area to escape the
urban decline of the day, were no more ingratiating.

Adán had come with his parents, from Chicago, who themselves had followed their
grandparents from the Mexican state of Durango. Finding little opportunity in
the lower West side neighborhood of Pilsen, they founded a thriving business as
subcontractors for the US Forest Service, replanting the trees that were clear
cut to provide the jobs and tax revenue that supported the local economy. Soon
cousins and other relatives came to help, some from Chicago, but mostly from
Mexico.

While planting the hillsides with millions of Douglas Fir seedlings, the
workers began to recognize that the lush verdant countryside would provide an
opportunity, similar to the mountains of Durango, for the planting of small
plantations of marijuana.

As they
crisscrossed the rugged mountains planting trees, they became familiar with the
location of every spring, and recognized that the south-facing hillsides that
would provide needed sunlight. They knew the movement of Forest Service and law
enforcement personnel, and they had a legitimate reason to be in the forest,
day in and day out.

Adán’s father, Eugenio, "Gene" Díaz, learned from an uncle how to
remove the male plants early in the season, eliminating the pollen sacks that
fertilize female buds, this resulted in the highly prized "sinsemilla"
marijuana that made a small Sinaloa group very wealthy in the 1970's.

Pilsen, a huge gateway section of Chicago for migrants
where more than 80% of residents are Mexican

On the
streets of Seattle, Washington and San Francisco, California, the product
produced by the Díaz family was renowned for its excellent quality.

After a decade or so, dozens of family members planted trees during the day,
and guarded, watered, and tended to marijuana at night. This system worked
well, until the family became part of the middle class, owning real estate,
small businesses, and no longer faced the underlying prejudice experience by
many Mexicans in rural America. Hardworking and dedicated to their work of
regenerating the forest, local loggers and hippies alike offered their grudging
respect.

While the Díaz family prospered, many other new arrivals prospered as well.
Hippies and other counterculture types moved to the area from all over the
country. Some were escaping the urban decay that was permeating American
cities, but many also came to take advantage of one of the best Marijuana
growing climates in the world.

Marijuana soon supplanted other crops as the
most valuable agricultural commodity in several states. While law enforcement
authorities soon took advantage of massive federal grants to target the
growers, there were other threats as well.

In 1971 there was a small hippie commune that dominated the area. It was
populated by self-sufficient back to nature types, as well as Viet Nam vets and
outlaw bikers, who were drawn to the Wild West culture and what they thought
was an ample opportunity for free love.

One early
morning, during one autumn's marijuana harvest, a large crop was found missing.
The garden was planted by a rough group not welcome in the commune, including a
Viet Nam vet who had been dishonorably discharged.

The following morning, the severed heads of two hippies were found on the river
bank downstream from the commune, under the green bridge. They belonged to two well-known
commune members, known as Old Moses and Rainbow Bob. Their badly beaten bodies
were found near their homes, six miles upstream. The bodies exhibited evidence
of the kind of torture known to be used by US forces in Viet Nam.

The murders were never solved, and the Díaz family paid little attention,
because they were neither friendly with the commune members, nor did they like
the moral attitude that seeped from the anarchist culture. Several other
violent incidents were tied to the growing of marijuana, but this was minor
compared to the drunken brawls that local loggers engaged in on a regular
basis.

In 1981, three loggers named Clark, Scott, and Cox, got into an altercation
with a long-haired man named Vander Jack at a bar, called the Rusty Spur. They
had a reputation as crazy drunken louts, who give people an ample beating just
for amusement. Vander Jack left in a hurry, but was found hitchhiking a few
miles down the road, as Clark, Scott, and Cox left for home.

They picked him
up. Accounts vary, but most of the three assailants agree they took Vander Jack
down to the river for a good old fashioned ass stomping. Apparently, Vander
Jack did something to anger Terry Cox more than usual,and Cox had a reputation for chasing friends
around with a revved up, running chainsaw, while threatening to cut their head
off.

Cox pulled the seat forward on his Ford F-100 pickup and pulled out a tire iron
and a hammer. Later, in court, he testified that the tire iron went into Vander
Jack's skull, "like a spike pushed into a watermelon."

Scott and Clark testified against Cox and were given suspended sentences. Clark
was convicted of manslaughter, but on appeal a trial error meant he was
released after serving a little under 4 years in state prison.

By 1987 federal grants to local law enforcement for the war on drugs had
reached staggering levels. Small planes and helicopters crisscrossed every inch
of forest, public or private, using professional spotters to locate as few as 2
marijuana plants. On such spotter located a small plantation on federal land
that had been recently replanted with Douglas Fir seedlings. Ground crews found
far more marijuana plants once they scouted the area on foot.

As the fall
harvest neared, state and federal agents staked out the plantation, waiting for
the growers to reap the crop. Unwitting crews of tree planters hiked in with
backpacks to begin the harvest, they found themselves surrounded. Gene Diaz had
made the unfortunate decision to oversee the work. Many of the workers were
able to slip into the surrounding hills, but Díaz quickly found himself in
handcuffs.

The easy
money then came to an end.

The Díaz family found themselves under unprecedented scrutiny. Their rental
properties were seized by the IRS Asset Forfeiture Program. Gene Díaz was sent
to federal prison for nearly a decade. His wife and children moved to Costa
Rica and his eldest son was sent to a preparatory school in Brazil. Many of the
extended family moved to the California Central Valley city of Stockton. Many
became involved in drugs and alcohol and several cousins and an uncle were
killed over drug debts or alcohol fueled vendettas.

Shortly after Díaz emerged from prison, much older and almost broken, marijuana
was legalized for medicinal use in several western states. Gene Díaz had a back
injury from his tree planting days that resulted in a herniated disc in his
spine, and he was one of the first in the area to receive a state permit
allowing him to possess and grow marijuana. (continues next page)
Díaz had long instilled in his children a disdain for alcohol and hard drugs,
particularly methamphetamine. His children and anyone working for him were
absolutely forbidden from using alcohol to excess, and must abstain during the
workday.The use or sales of hard drugs
was viewed as grounds for immediate excommunication.

Ironically,
Gene himself had developed a nasty black tar heroin addiction, he developed as
he self-medicated to relieve his back injury. He and his wife's parents from
Durango were old school heroin dealers in Chicago, and they had pioneered many
smuggling methods still in use to this day.

With the state legalization of medical marijuana, the Díaz family was no longer
relegated to the rugged mountains for growing their product, and now they could
take advantage of the fertile farmland and ample water supply that the valleys
were endowed with. While the state placed no limit on the number of patients a
marijuana cooperative could grow for, it was well known that growing more than
100 plants was a federal crime punishable by a 10 year minimum sentence.

The ample sun and water afforded by bottom land meant that each plant yielded
an average of 10 pounds, or about 5 kilos, of high-grade marijuana, when a 1
pound plant grown guerrilla-style was considered exceptional. Each plant
required a 10' x 10' growing area, with 5 feet between rows for working,
meaning a 96 plant garden would only require 1/2 acre of usable space, but
would yield about 1/2 ton of high-grade marijuana, which dealers in Chicago
would call Kush, and sell for $15 a gram, no matter what strain it was.

Soon cousins, uncles, and other associates could grow 1,000 pounds of
marijuana, or more, even if they live in a rented trailer on one acre, at the
edge of town. With a value of $1,000 a pound locally, there was profit to be
made, where dealers in Chicago would buy 200 pounds at a time for $2,500 a
pound, and in New York they would pay $4,000 a pound, wholesale. This was
nowhere near the profit that came from a $20,000 kilo of cocaine, bought for
$1,500 in Colombia, but with dozens of family members producing massive
quantities, at a producer cost of $250-$300, there was still money to be made.

200 pounds of high-grade marijuana delivered to Chicago in the back of an SUV
would wholesale for $500,000, while 2,000 pounds sent in a tractor-trailer,
would bring $5 million. The stage was clearly set for a profitable enterprise
that involves little risk.

12:23, 100% us born American of Hispanic descent, unlike you,not a 100% us born motherfucking asshole with an ego problem,usually too stupid to get along with the ladies,take your anger on Hispanics,do you need a visit from the Mongols?

I remember them old hippies in northern calif as i grew up there.my uncle went camping back in the day up there and was shot at above his head to get out of there.he had no clue he even stumbled on to them.them vietnam vets and hells angels were the craziest as they didnt give a damn about nothing.i remember those days! My grandparents were dust bowl okies is how we wound up there!

Its people like this, that give hard working illegal aliens a bad name, never mind the rhetoric spewed by backwards gabacho racists that say all illegals are criminals just by being here. some break the law to get here, but then never break another law ever. This Diaz family is a racists wet dream so far as propaganda goes; they came here and lived as criminals! its people like them, that give fuel to the people breaking up families by deporting folks who never broke a law besides coming here illegally to better themselves, never thinking of how they can get over illegally....too bad all the Diaz's didn't end up in prison and broke...your story almost sounds like its making excuses for them...i know folks who served in Vietnam and couldnt get seated in a restaurant in the south because they only had facilities for whites and blacks, not browns, back then, and they didn't let that be an excuse to be criminals....

I totally agree with you. As an immigration attorney, I see how hard many undocumented immigrants work. They did break the law, but live as a law abiding individuals who work their behind off to support their families. I can't stand these types of post by making excuses, but I will reserve my opinion till the final saga.

Cali mota overated!!!NW buds are way stonier,cali can only move the backyard boo boo to redneck states like georgia. If they bring their boo boo to the NW they will get stuck out here with no gas money to drive back.LOL!

Indoors are out of sight and out of mind , but their are major players in the woods here in TexasLocal growers are scared off by headless animals being left atop their pulled up marijuana cropsInsiders News TeXassss